North Carolina

Fraternity members plead to animal neglect

Members of a Wake Forest University fraternity accused of mistreating a pig pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of animal neglect.

The 200-pound intoxicated pig was found in a ditch, missing its tail, in Winston-Salem the morning after an April party in a park. The fraternity members were charged under the state’s animal cruelty statutes.

The plea deal with 21 members of Sigma Phi Epsilon will allow the students to avoid criminal convictions.

The students will enter a supervised deferred prosecution program for six months, perform community service, write an essay on animal cruelty, and meet with community members to discuss the responsible care of animals.

Tennessee

Fraternity suspended for blackface show

The Kappa Sigma fraternity suspended its University of Tennessee chapter Wednesday after members painted their faces in black to appear as the Jackson 5.

The fraternity apologized in the campus newspaper this week. It said the members wore blackface to participate in an “air guitar” contest as the music group.

The suspension means the chapter at Knoxville will not be allowed to participate in campus events such as homecoming next week.

Even if the national group lifts the suspension, the chapter will be required to prove it upholds the university’s expectations for “civility, ethnic diversity and racial harmony” before it can re-establish itself on campus, Provost Loren Crabtree said in a statement.

Washington, D.C.

Veterans file lawsuit over weapons tests

Two groups of military veterans charge in federal court that they cannot get proper medical treatment because the government will not release records of their exposure to tests of atomic, chemical or biological weapons.

The suits say federal officials, dating to former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, have refused to produce the records of weapons testing and details of whether the veterans were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation or toxic chemicals during experiments about which they were not told.

A spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs had no immediate comment Wednesday.

The suits, filed in U.S. District Court and announced Wednesday, cover 425,000 veterans.

“I wasn’t asked if I wanted to be a human guinea pig,” said one plaintiff, Robert Bates, a Navy veteran. “And now, I can’t get my complete medical records from the government so that I can get needed benefits.”

Phoenix

‘Sammy the Bull’ sentenced for drugs

Former mob turncoat Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano was sentenced to 19 years in state prison Wednesday for masterminding an Ecstasy drug ring.

The sentence will run concurrently with a 20-year federal prison term Gravano is already serving.

Until his arrest in 1999, Gravano had been living in Scottsdale under the assumed name “Jimmy Moran” after testifying against now-deceased Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.

He had admitted to 19 murders as a mob hitman but served only five years in prison on racketeering charges under a deal with New York prosecutors to testify against Gotti, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1992.

Gravano had been running a construction company and restaurant in Scottsdale when he and 45 other people were arrested in 1999 for selling the drug Ecstasy. At its height, the ring allegedly sold more than $300,000 worth of pills a week.